NEA Actionline

Managing in Unpredictable Times

NEA’s higher education conference in March will focus on the extraordinary changes affecting our nation’s universities and community colleges.

NEA’s 28th annual higher education conference, “Advancing Higher Education in Unpredictable Times,” will convene March 26–28. Check www.nea.org/he regarding latest news on venue. Melissa Harris-Lacewell—Princeton University associate professor of politics and African-American studies, award-winning author, and broadcast commentator—will be the keynote speaker. Martha Kanter, Under Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, will also address the conference. Kanter oversees policies, programs, and activities related to postsecondary education, vocational and adult education, and federal student aid. The conference is being held jointly with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Online registration forms and hotel reservations are available at www.nea.org/he. The program will be posted online as it is finalized. Early bird registration rates end February 15, while online registration remains open until March 5. Leadership Day is March 25 and is open to NEA and AFT members and affiliate staff from both organizations. Pre-conference activities also include the annual membership meeting of NEA’s National Council for Higher Education on Thursday evening (25th) and again on Friday morning.

The 2010 issue of the NEA Almanac of Higher Education will be released at the conference. The Almanac features a series of annual articles on higher education funding, faculty salaries, ESP issues, collective bargaining contracts, and faculty work, as well as articles of particular concern for higher education employees. The Almanac is distributed to NEA higher education locals and leaders, and is available for conferences and to libraries. If you are interested in obtaining copies for your meeting, please email HigherEd@nea.org for details.

Thought & Action, The NEA Higher Education Journal, invites submissions for “Radical Transformations,” the 2010 Special Focus section. The term “radical transformation” is a two-edged sword. On one hand, higher education has been buffeted over the past few decades by a series of transformations, such as changes in how public higher education is financed, changes in employment characteristics of faculty, proliferation of online approaches to instruction, and more.

On the other hand, the term “radical” has meaning in the political sense—as in the need for innate transformations to create a more just, equitable, and democratic world. Is higher education at a crossroads? Have we had enough of administrators, pundits, and politicians setting the agenda for higher education? What should be the role of intellectuals and scholarship in creating the future?

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